Open-source: license header for each source file or one COPY OR TOTAL?

Question

Publishing an open source project, is it enough to add a COPY file to the package, or do I need to copy and paste it on top of each project source file?
In well-known public repositories such as github or Google code, I saw different mixed approaches, so I would like to know how to handle this aspect correctly.

Answer 1

When working for a company that takes copyright very seriously, we are obligated to place copyright / license messages in each separate file, despite the fact that this is not technically required by US law.

I suspect that if the file is somehow separated from the product as a whole, it will still be easily identifiable.

However, we do not support this message in every single file. We have scripts that automatically add copyright messages to every file released into the wild. Thus, you only need to change one file.

We also have scripts that check each release file with the correct message.

However, from a licensing point of view, the lack of an explicit license means that standard copyright will apply, so it may be that you are happy with the only LICENCE.txt file.

As always, my legal opinion is worth every percentage that you paid me for it (which is zero). I am not a lawyer, of course, I am not your lawyer.

Answer 2

Each license creator has its own set of recommendations. Is this the GPL? Then you might want to follow the official GNU manual, which you can find here (a prefix is ​​required for each file):

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.html

Check also some resources:

http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/opensourceyourcode.xml#body.1_div.3 http://producingoss.com/en/license-quickstart.html

Answer 3

It depends on which license I use. For example, licenses such as the GPL apply to work in general, so I just put the COPYING file in the root directory of the source and then make a note in each source file in accordance with the recommendations of the FSF. On the other hand, if I release the code under the BSD or MIT license (or something similar), I usually don’t worry about a separate license file and just put the license information in the source file (it seems, probably with the BSD or MIT license, people will capture individual source files and use the code).

If you are asking on behalf of a “large, important” project, you will want to consult a lawyer.

Answer 4

I am working on KDE marble, and in KDE we put the license text in each file.